The invention relates generally to accessories for use with beds and specifically relates to providing a fun atmosphere in children's beds.
Children enjoy the idea of camping, sleeping outside in a tent, roasting marshmallows over an open fire, and the excitement of a different sleeping arrangement. Unfortunately, when they are taken outside and sense how dark it is and fear that wild animals would be lurking around the tent, they often change their minds and sleep inside.
This can be very frustrating to the parents who have taken the time to set up the tent in the yard and bring out the sleeping bags, pillows, flashlights, security blankets, and snacks.
Previous attempts have been made to provide a tent-like cover over a conventional bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,451 to Neely provides for a sheet to extend over a support frame of welded angle iron that is connected to the bed frame. Four vertically orientated posts are welded to the support frame near each corner of the bed and are braced by a horizontal bar to form two U-shaped frames. The sheet is then tucked under the mattress at the foot of the bed, extended over the horizontal bars where four pre-formed holes in the sheet line up with the posts, and the other end of the sheet is draped over the headboard with a weight inserted to maintain tension in the sheet. The device of the Neely patent is not well suited for use for children. The bed tent design of the Neely patent is expensive and awkward. The bed tent disclosed in the Neely patent is cumbersome to assemble and only provides rigid fixed positions to place the posts and no allowance for varying the location or height of the horizontal bars.
The bed tent disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,598 to Griesenbeck allows for a form-fitted special tent to be fitted onto an existing mattress with two supports that form a dome-like structure over the mattress and is geared for children. There are several drawbacks to this design. This system requires the removal of the existing bedding. Additionally, no variation exists to change the design from the dome-shaped form, and the assembly is time-consuming and tedious.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art. The present invention provides a bed tent which allows privacy to persons within the bed and which is light in weight, easy to assemble, adaptable to a variety of shapes, and requires no additional room space.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bed tent which may be used with a conventional bed sheet or a manufactured sheet.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a bed tent that requires no tools to assemble, can be erected and taken apart easily by one person, and can be stored and transported easily.